Naruto, puppeteer and unwilling shinobi
by The Grim Reapers Apprentice
Summary: This is a rewrite of Caexah's story, 'Narutos new path through life, with puppets'. Naruto is alone as a child, living a bleak life, until Sarutobi buys him a few puppets, unknowingly setting the whiskered blond on a new path through life. A path, that if the blond had any say, would not include being a ninja.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a remake of the story written by Caexah, I have full permission of the original author to do this. I would like to point out that this story, while running parallel and incorporating the same themes will be going in a different direction, as shown in even this chapter. **

Naruto was lonely as a child. He had no friends or parents, always by himself save when the old man hokage would visit, and that was a rare occasion in itself as the old man was always caught up in paperwork or his family, and so was only able to visit the young jinchūriki rarely. He was desperate for someone, anyone to call friend. But no one would ever call him friend, for fear of the beast within him, or for the youth of the village, their parents ire.

He tried to understand why the people of the village seemed to hate him. Why did parents pull their children away from him, take them from a park he would enter, even in the middle of their games? Was it something he did? Something he was suppose to do, but never did? Whenever something like this would happen he would always hear people angrily whisper the same words; unstable, demon, fox and law.

He never got a respite from the loneliness, even in the orphanage in which he lived. The other orphans avoided him on the word of the caretakers, and threats of punishment if they disobeyed. One boy named Han tried to befriend him once, a moment of hope for Naruto, but was swiftly dragged away by one of the caretakers and sent to his bed with no dinner after a firm spanking. That was the only lesson the children needed to never try and befriend Naruto again. The caretakers also made it so that Naruto was the last on the list to get anything, be it clothes or food, and never to get excess. Despite their clear dislike of the boy, the caretakers never physically harmed him, and turned away any of the drunks who took it into their head to go after him.

His loneliness was suffocating for a child, the looks of scorn to much for him, and with no one to turn to he felt it all multiplied. To try to alleviate his loneliness he learned to read, and escaped his life into the worlds of books. Soon the characters in the books became his closest friends. It was not a lot for a child, but it was enough to keep him from falling into a pit of despair.

Eventually when he was six the orphanage threw him out, using some excuse about how no one would adopt any of the children as long as he was there. Being the intelligent child he was he immediately sought out the hokage, who was able to help him by giving him a small apartment that the village had retained as a place to keep foreign shinobi that sought asylum in the village while they were being screened for fraudulence in their reasoning, but had recently been scrapped due to falling into disrepair. It wasn't much, and parts of the wall had holes in them, but it was free and it was big enough for Naruto.

On one of the few days that the hokage had time to spend with Naruto, a week before his birthday, they came across a traveling salesman from a small town not to far away from Konoha. The man made a living by traveling from town to town selling the bits and bobs he collected or made as he traveled, and from his puppet show that he performed for children. The puppet he used was not the best, barely able to pass off for humanoid in shape, but the man had great skill in using the wooden thing, making it appear almost alive.

Naruto was utterly enthralled with the moving doll, so much so that when the traveller mentioned that he sold some smaller puppets, Naruto begged the old hokage to buy him one. The old man didn't, he bought three. It was a smiling Naruto that crawled into bed that night, three crude puppets laying beside him. His movements with the puppets were harsh and crude in the beginning, but he had nothing else to do with his time but read and practice and he made quick progress.

As he grew he began to learn the skills necessary to create puppets for himself. Woodworking to make the puppets form, painting to give them color, sewing for garments and accessories and seals which he picked up reading to ensure they would last. He even learned chakra strings, a technique most commonly found in Suna, from an obscure book from the hokage so as to make his creations more life like.

He modeled his creations after the princesses he had read about in his books, blond hair, blue eyes and dresses of a style known as victorian. He had discovered a love for the style after seeing a picture of a girl in the style in one of his books back in the orphanage.

The more he practiced his craft, in both movement and creation, the more life like his puppets became. The more lifelike they became the further people would distance themselves from him. This however, was not something that bothered him, for he had all the friends he needed now. His puppets danced and played with him as he went through his life, he had gotten proficient enough that he barely had to focus on the puppets as he went through his life. The puppets were with him everywhere he went, floating around his head looking at the world with childlike interest, searching and poking things. He had even learned a special seal that would allow the puppets to change the face they show by rapidly sealing and unsealing the current face they had on, each one showing a different emotion to take them to the next level of realism.

It gave him great joy to see them float and play around, even if it was him that made them do it.

He took them with him when the old man hokage asked him to go to the ninja academy when he turned eight, something that he really did not want to do, but the old man had been so nice to him over the years that he did so anyway. Naruto didn't want to be a ninja, much too dangerous for his taste, he'd rather stay alive, thank you very much! Besides, he did not think fondly on learning to killing people.

Not that they actually taught them to do it.

Well, they did, but it was disguised! The teachers carefully avoided saying that the students would one day have to kill, they did however, tell stories of heroes and always made sure to mention The Will of Fire. They used it to explain why heros would kill, or be killed, to protect their village. It was brainwashing! When an innocent student made their first kill, or had to make a life or death choice during a mission, they would think back on what they were taught and remember those legends, and that would strengthen their resolve to protect their home.

Brain-washing . . .

It highly amused Naruto that a village that prided itself on the value of honesty ( as if ninjas knew the meaning of the word) and teamwork would use such methods on their youth. They prided themselves on their heros and legends as well, so much so that they were attempting to churn them out of their school. Who ever said that heroes were born and not made had never been to Konoha.

One day the class had been sent out to learn how to throw the standard ninja weapons, shuriken and kunai, the class sensei went through a couple impressive routines with the weapons, from spinning them on his finger to fancy throughs. All of it to get the children interested in using deadly weapons. It didn't take much for most of the boys.

Naruto's puppets made a show of struggling to lift the kunais and pass them to Naruto, one even lost it's grip once and landed on it's but, a look of surprise on it's face while the other two laughed. They made cute faces while they struggled to pull the weapons from the wooden targets, shaped like logs in order to not scare away the young students.

The ninjas even used propaganda to fool the civilians into thinking that they were nothing less than saints meant to protect them from the evils of the other countries. The hypocrisy of it all was not lost on Naruto. They praised their own shinobi as heros while condemning the ninjas of other villages for doing exactly what their protectors did.

LB

Naruto stared down at what he considered to be his greatest creation, a life size puppet that followed the basic design of his smaller ones, save for two major things. One was that the puppet had the ability to talk, he may have to control what it says, but it could talk. The other was a special seal he designed on the eyes that allowed him to see what the puppet would see through a special pair of glasses. Admittedly he had some help from Jiji, but it was his idea! It had taken him roughly two years to build the puppet, using the best and strongest materials he could afford, pouring hours into working on every single part of it, and it was finally done. All he had to do now was connect one of his strings to it.

Despite himself, Naruto was nervous. Sure he had created a hundred of his smaller puppets, the small marionettes in question were 'whispering' to themselves shaking with nerves, but he had never attempted to control such a big one.

The marionette in question was designed to be a impressive six feet tall. Naruto had designed her to be many things, a guardian, a maid, and most importantly, a friend. He had crafted a friendly heart shaped face with a delicate nose and wide expressive eyes, though at the moment they were closed. The puppets body looked soft, despite it's being made of wood. He had dressed her in a simple light blue dress with a white apron over it and simple black shoes. All in all one could easily mistake the puppet for a person, and thats what Naruto was going for.

"Here goes nothing," Naruto rose his hand in anticipation and connected a single chakra thread to the puppet. "Time to wake up, Alice." He twitched his finger in a very pronounced way, something he hadn't had to do for a long time.

The puppet slowly got up in a jerky movement, Naruto struggling to move the much larger puppet. He tried moving it with just his finger for a few more minutes, having it perform tricks, before giving it up for a lost cause and trying again with all five of his fingers. This gave him the results he needed as the puppets movement became more fluid and natural.

"Hello Alice." Naruto greeted, smiling like a mad child.

"Hello, Master." Alice returned the greeting with a curtsy. Her voice was rough and scratchy, and lacked any distinctive pitches or nuances that a real person would have. That was to be expected though as it was a prototype seal the old man had helped him make. The old man had spent whatever time he had to spare with Naruto working on this puppet with him. After all, there is only so much a nine year old can do in regards to sealing.

"Good to see you finally got around to 'waking' our friend their Naruto-kun." A voice chortled behind the blond jinjuriki, causing Naruto to jump in shock and his smaller puppets to turn around with looks of fright on their small wooden faces. "You really should pay attention to your surroundings Naruto-kun."

"Jiji!" The young boy rushed his grandfather figure, a look of pure happiness on his face while the smaller puppets danced around him in the air. "I didn't think I'd see you until next week!"

"Yes, well," Sarutobi began as he led Naruto over towards the blonds couch, "I managed to find some time today. Don't tell Misa, but I left a shadow clone behind to take care of the paperwork." The two shared a small laugh. Misa is Sarutobi's secretary, and was always on the old mans case about all the paperwork the old man had to do and did not care for short cuts. She is also a very talented kunoichi that specialises in genjutsu, with her favorite being a recreation of a castration. With a spoon. No one wanted to cross her.

The two talked for a while, Naruto practicing controlling Alice as they did so, before they eventually got to the other reason Sarutobi stopped by.

"Naruto, we need to discuss your performance in the academy."

Naruto groaned, all his puppets adopting a bored or agitated persona and Alice crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "This again?"

"Yes, 'this again'. You need to put more effort into your studies, Naruto. The academy instructors inform me that you're just at the middle of the class. And that's only in the academic work, according to Iruka you are at the bottom of the class in ninjutsu and taijutsu, while being mediocre in genjutsu. Honestly Naruto, how do you expect to be a ninja like this?"

Naruto mumbled something unintelligible.

"What was that Naruto?"

"I said I don't wanna be a ninja jiji!" Naruto shouted, frustrated. He had been trying to tell the old man this for a while, but this was the first time he had said it outloud since the time Sarutobi had asked him to attend in the first place.

The Sandaime cringed at Naruto's words, though he hid it expertly. He had thought that the boy would have grown to accept or even enjoy the prospect of being a ninja, positive that once he began the academy, the son of his former successor would have embraced the shinobi life style. Apparently it hadn't worked out that way. Hopefully if he could figure out why Naruto didn't want to be a ninja he could change his mind.

"Why do you not want to be a ninja, Naruto-kun?"

"I don't wanna fight. I don't like fighting, and I don't wanna kill anybody either! I just wanna read books and play with my puppets."

"But don't you want to protect the village? And you know that reading and playing with puppets won't make you any money."

"I know that I can't make any money reading, and that living off puppet shows is not the smartest, but I could be a librarian! Maybe in the capital! You said the fire capital has the biggest library in the world, right? Maybe when I'm older I can move there and become one of the librarians!" The young boy was practically dancing at the idea, the puppets around him, save Alice who had returned to a neutral standing position, were performing cartwheels and floating all over the place in excitement.

"Thats all well and good, Naruto, but what about the village, your home. It should be at the forefront of anyones mind to protect their home. And I know the thought of fighting is scarey, and killing horrifying, but to protect your home you will be able to move past that. I feel that you have so much to offer, with a few more years and a couple more jutsu, I feel that you could be an excellent protector of Konoha. Maybe one day you could take my place, eh?" The old man nudged the younger boy playfully, though inside he was frowning. If Naruto did not go for it, did not wish to become a ninja of his own free will, then Sarutobi knew that he would have to order the blond to do so. As a jinchuuriki Naruto had no choice in whether he became a ninja or not. The law required him to be one for the good of the village and the country. He would even have to reveal the fox to Naruto earlier than planned.

"Thats nice and all," Naruto began slowly, "But theres one problem."

"Oh? What's that?"

"I don't consider this place home."


	2. Chapter 2

**_Disclaimer: I own nothing._**

**_Review Responses. _**

**_somilmish: Thanks for the positive comments, means a lot. As for your questions, well, the first two you will have to wait and see. As for the last, well, I think you'll either be pleased or disappointed when you get to that bit here._**

**_Theslightlyinsanejaberwocky: Glad to hear you like it, so how does it stack up to the original? I'm considering two more puppet servants, but that's about it._**

**_careharver: Wait no more my friend! At least, until you finish this chapter._**

**_Guest(the first one): I have updated._**

**_Jostanos: Two epic words, my friend. And don't know if you read the original, but yeah it's up. Tell me how you think this compares._**

**_Jay: I felt that I had shown enough to get my point across, though I am glad you have shared your views with me. Also, 3.7? What's that on a scale of?_**

**_Guest(the second one): The technique was the creation of battle puppets, puppets with hidden traps and metal frames along with specialized jutsu. Naruto uses actual puppets with chakra strings, which he learned from the book the old man gave him. I believe that chakra strings are just another chakra manipulation technique, and the only reason that it's not used more is that other countries just don't have any use for it. Glad to contribute to such a minority of fic's._**

'_I don't consider this place home.' _Even after five years those words still haunt Hiruzen Sarutobi. It hurt the old man to know that the boy he considered as a third grandson hated, or at least did not care for, the place he loved most.

After Naruto's little confession it had been Hiruzen's turn to reveal something, the reason so many people shunned him. Naruto had been suitably shocked to learn he had a giant malevolent fox in his stomach. He knows it was inconsiderate, but while the boy was still in shock he explained the entire situation, on how as a jinchuuriki he must become a shinobi, or risk having the biju removed by order of the council and konoha's charter and placed in another, killing him in the process. This was of course a lie, but he felt it was and is, his duty to see the son of the fourth become a shinobi.

In shock the boy had numbly nodded and promised to work better in class. Sarutobi had felt terrible about this, and had arranged for the two of them to have a special dinner at Embusu's, a favorite restaurant of both Sarutobi and Naruto, that specialize in seafood.

But all of that was years ago, today was the team assignment day and Naruto would finally become a ninja of the hidden leaf.

"Hokage-sama," Iruka, the instructor interrupted the old mans musings, "The Jounin are here and ready to figure out the team placements."

"Very well," began the aged god of shinobi, "Send them in."

An odd assortment of people walked in, all highly respected jounin of the hidden leaf. Greetings we're passed around and a certain silver haired cyclopes walked in before Sarutobi brought forth the purpose for the gathering.

"Today we are gathered to separate the graduating academy class into seven groups of three, all of you have read the files on the children, yes? Then I must ask, are there any requests? I am sure that some of these students have caught your eye. Though I ask that you remember that I have the right to deny any request should I disapprove." A rather attractive woman with red eyes and long raven hair stepped forward. "Kurenai?"

"If you would allow it, Hokage-sama, I would request Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba be put under my tutelage. I believe that they would make a excellent tracking team."

Sarutobi thought this over for a moment. "Yes, I believe you are right. The three would go well in a information gathering unit, though I am surprised to see you volunteering to teach an Inuzuka. Your distaste for the clan is rather well known. Never the less I shall grant this request, unless their are any objections?"

A rather short bald man in standard jounin wear and a pair of binoculars pushed up on his forehead stepped forward. "If I may be so bold, Hokage-sama, I must question the wisdom of allowing such a young jounin to teach a group of genin, especially when she is a genjutsu specialist asking to teach a potential tracking team." He held up a hand to halt Kurenai's rebuttal before continuing. "I am not saying I find her incompetent, as I believe that she is an excellent genjutsu user, but I believe that Kurenai is not ready to teach as she is still settling into her position." Many of the shinobi nodded at this. While Kurenai was a feared kunoichi, having bested many of the more senior ninja in a few spars, she was still new to her position and sometimes hesitated when giving out orders, often trying ways to prevent unavoidable injuries. "Perhaps next year with a stealth oriented team. I, as an ex-hunter nin, would make a better teacher for these three."

"A point, Aizon, however I will oblige Kurenai's request on the condition that she consults you on tracking methods and reminds her students to keep up with their clan training. I feel that her expertise in genjutsu would allow for the creation of a competent ambush squad. Any other requests?"

"Well, if it isn't too much trouble," Hatake Kakashi began lazily, "I would request Uchiha Sasuke be placed under my care."

As a slew of requests and demands started to be thrown around, Sarutobi slowly let out a sigh. 'This is going to be a long day.'

lb

A wave of cold water crashed down on the sleeping form of one Uzumaki Naruto, shocking him awake.

"Wakey, wakey brat! Don't want to be late now do we?" A female voice crackled as she watched Naruto splutter and shiver. "After all, the sooner you get your team the sooner you get missions. And the sooner you get missions the sooner I can kill, so hurry up and get ready!"

"I get you're excited, Kurama, but did you have to dump water on me, again?" Naruto sarcastically asked, familiar with the conversation at hand. The boy had grown from too short for his nine year old age , to a reasonable tall fourteen year old. He had allowed his hair to grow out enough that it reached his shoulders while his bangs framed his face and even shaded his had grown to a decent five foot four.

"Did you have to stuff me in a female puppet?" Kurama replied with a raised brow and crossed arms. The puppet stood at five foot eight, with long dark red hair and sharp ruby eyes. She, or he as Kurama would furiously claim, though Naruto always said she to his chagrin, wore a pair of black heavy duty ninja pants, a heavy grey wool shirt and combat vest with multiple scroll pockets, and a thin ninjato on her back. A long black line stretched from each of the possesed puppets eyes down underneath it's shirt connecting to a fairly large seal on the puppets stomach.

"Did you have try to kill me when we first meet? But seriously, you know I hate making male puppets. It just feels weird." The soaked boy jumped out of his soggy bed and made his way to the bathroom, calling over his shoulder, "Since you got it wet, _you_, can clean it up while I get ready! Oh, and tell Alice I want an omelette today."

"Yeah, sure thing! You brat." The kyuubi mumbled the last bit under his breath. Kurama began to strip the bed, wading up the soggy sheets into a ball before caring them over to the laundry room. On the way, the biju possessed puppet came across Alice, the elder doll busy watering the few indoor plants that the brat kept. The doll looked almost exactly the same as it had five years ago, save it now had the same thin black lines coming from it's eyes to a seal hidden under it's blue dress.

"Yo, wood pile, the brat says he want's you to make him a omelet before he heads out."

"Thank you for informing me of Master's wishes, Kurama-chan," the golden haired puppet began in a much more melodious voice than five years ago, getting a growl from the red headed puppet, "But I really wish you would show the Master more respect."

Kurama snorted, "He aint no master of mine. The only reason I stick with the kid is 'cause my real body's still trapped in that damn seal, and if he dies I die. Plus I get to kill people soon. Bah, why am I even talking to you, your just a hunk of animated wood." And with that Kurama set about completing his task, which he was only doing because he wanted to. Definitely not because Naruto would cut off his out of seal time if he didn't, no. Definitely not that.

"As you say." Alice replied with a frown. She was completely loyal to Naruto, what with him giving her her life and all, and to see anyone disrespect him really irked the living puppet.

lb

Naruto stood in front of the recently de-fogged mirror examining himself carefully, or rather, the two large seals on his torso. Both were shaped as a double helix, almost like a strand of DNA. One was over his heart, and rather long stretching from his collar bone to half an inch below the area of the heart. The other was half that size and centered over the seal on his stomach.

Both of these seals were half of the complete living puppet seal. The other half was located on the torso of his two puppets, Alice and Kurama, and looked like a rather fancy heart. He came up with the seal with a lot of help from Jiraiya of the sannin, who he had met four years ago. The actual meeting was conducted by the Sandaime, most likely as an attempt to awe him into actually wanting to be a shinobi, instead of just becoming one out of duty. It didn't work, but he did learn a lot about the sealing arts.

The seal they had come up with was designed to help protect Naruto, once it became clear to Jiraiya that Naruto was never going to get into the more destructive and harmful shinobi arts, by giving Alice the ability to act independently of Naruto himself.

The seal took a constant stream of chara from Naruto, via the double helix seal on his body, and then infusing it in the doll at the heart seal, which acted as a artificial chakra network for whatever it was applied to. This artificial network allowed Alice to move and think for herself, though also forced her to obey Naruto like a shadow clone would the original, since he was the origin of her chakra. The heart seal had a blank area in the center that allowed another seal to be worked in to focus the puppet on a specific task.

When all was said and done it was labeled an S class seal and deemed unsafe to be released to the average shinobi. Since the helix seal constantly sent a stream of chakra to the heart seal the person filing it would never be at his maximum chakra capacity, and in fact die do to strain caused by constantly fueling what could be considered another person at that point. Jiraiya estimated an average jounin would be able to have it active for twelve hours a day of inactivity before it became a risk, and only thirty minutes in a fight. Naruto, however, used very little chakra anyway and produced kage level amounts, along with being a jinchuuriki, and was able to fuel Alice constantly, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, with little trouble.

Of course there are failsafes in the 'living puppet' seal as they named it. One was that the seal would stop working should the user faint. Another made it impossible for the one with a heart seal to attack a helix seal. And the final one was a miniature 'battery' seal that stored a small amount of chakra that would enable the puppet to grab Naruto and run should an enemy knock him unconscious.

When applying the seal on Alice, Naruto staunchly refused to have an aggression seal worked into the heart seal, a seal that would have forced a constant state of rage and made the puppet a perfect weapon. Instead, Naruto convinced the sannin to insert a compulsive seal focused on protection, so the marionette would be the perfect guard.

And then their was Kurama's' special one. Jiraiya, and even the Sandaime, had no idea that Naruto's 'risky second' living puppet was actually the they complained about him making a second puppet under the same technique, they soon turned around when they realized just how violent Naruto made 'her', infact they were happy that he finally made something to allow him go on the offence.

When Naruto first meet kyuubi, who later gave his name as Kurama, he had been almost killed by the fox as it tried to take a swipe out of him. Despite this, Naruto still felt bad for the giant kitsune, and offered him a deal. A semblance of freedom in return for protecting Naruto in this dangerous world.

A new puppet, placing the necessary seals for the living puppet, and a burst of bijuu chakra later and the Kyuubi was walking around again. Of course, when he noticed his body was female he flipped.

He nearly strangled Naruto when he realised he was in a dress.

Shaking his head Naruto finished inspecting the seal and began to get dressed. First was a pair of boxers quickly followed by a pair of blue pants, then pulled a burnt orange shirt on. The last thing he slipped on are a pair of white running shoes. Giving his hair a quick, and useless combe, Naruto stepped out, ready to start his day.

lb

After quickly eating his omelet, which was as good as could be expected considering a puppet made it, Naruto quickly made his way to the academy with Kurama, and a gaggle of doll sized puppets, in tow. He decided to leave Alice at home since it was just graduation and not anything important. There was also the little fact Kurama tended to get antsy when left alone too long.

"Hurry up you baka. It's bad enough we have to walk on these streets, the least you could do is pick up the pace!"

"Eh, theres no need to hurry, Kurama-chan, we still have half an hour." Naruto lazily replied, expertly avoiding the stone the irate kyuubi threw at him. While Naruto knew how to roof jump, it was just one of the things the academy emphasized on, he preferred to walk like a civilian, it gave him the time to pretend that he was not a ninja.

"Hey, I got a question for you."

"What is it?" Naruto asked, slightly curious.

"Well, where the hell's your hitai-ate brat? I thought you were supposed to wear one when you became a ninja?" This had been bugging the demon possessed puppet since the two had set out, and he finally reached a point where he just had to ask.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Well, I suppose so, I kinda forgot about that."

The Kyuubi gave the best deadpan glare his current female puppet form could hope to perform, "You forgot. You forgot the one thing that gives you, and by extension me, the right to KILL?!" That last remark got a lot of unpleasant looks.

"It's more than that," He began, not even giving the stares a second glance while his mini puppets were busy making faces, "and yeah, I forgot to put it on, it's in my pocket right now." He reached into his back pocket and withdrew a standard Konoha hitai-ate. He stared at it for a moment before tossing it to his partner and continued to walk. Kurama caught it with a confused expression.

"While most ninja wear the hitai-ate, it's not for the reasons civilians think. It's a symbol of pride, nothing more. It does not matter if I wear it or not, it really serves no other purpose than to scream 'hey, I'm a leaf-nin!' to every enemy outside these walls. And that license to kill? It's in my wallet. You know, the shinobi license card I had to have a picture taken for?" He waved the aforementioned wallet in front of Kurama's face. "Besides, you know I don't care for killing."

"Yeah, okay then. What do you want me to do with this?"

"Wear it, burn it, use it to strangle some random bandit, I don't care." Naruto shrugged, uncaring, before continuing on his way to the academy.

Kurama looked at the little combination of cloth and steel before tying it around his left arm. 'If the brat gets a license to kill, then so should I.'

Eventually the jinchuuriki and bijuu duo reached their destination.

The Konoha shinobi academy us a wide spread three story building, and like all key buildings in Konohagakure it had a squad of ANBU patrolling it at all times. The building had been constructed by the second hokage and had withstood the onslaught of two wars.

It was the third floor that Naruto was walking towards, the same class room he had spent the past several years being taught the shinobi arts in. Naruto soon entered room three hundred and six, and quickly made his way into his usual seat in the very back corner right next to the window. As per usual, Kurama stood next to him directly on his left, only this time he lacked the usual look of boredom on his female face.

Iruka walked into the classroom door with a clipboard and a smile. Kuruma, Naruto, and indeed a good majority of the remaining class noted that the teachers assistant was missing, though just dismissed it thinking he was off doing something else.

As the instructor began the traditional team placement speech, most people tuned him out in favor of their own thoughts. For Naruto, it was noting how glaringly obvious it was that everyone made a point to avoid sitting near him. While most would find this disheartening, Naruto was rather glad for this as it allowed him to read one of his favorite books, Sword of Honesty, without interruption. Though he had to hide the book below the desk he was at to avoid Iruka's wrath.

This situation was also something that everyone had come to accept over the years, even during the time when there were many more students, people tended to try and avoid sitting next to the rather aloof puppet master since he was not exactly friendly. Oh, thats not to say he was mean, it's just that Naruto much preferred the company of his puppets to people and tended to brush actual people off as unimportant. As such, it could safely be said that Naruto lacked a single friend in his entire class. Though he had several acquaintances he was on friendly terms with. His smaller puppets danced around his head in a playful manner, while Kurama just spaced out waiting for Iruka to actually get around to announcing the teams.

"Alright, now for the moment you have all been waiting for," the scarred chunin began, catching the instant attention of all his students. "Alright, well it looks like it's going to be . . ." As he continued to call out the teams, the rookie ninja slowly shuffled their way to sit next to their team members. ". . . Team seven will consist of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto, under the tutelage of Hatake Kakashi."

Several girls groaned as Sakura gave a fist pump of victory. Money was passed around as Sakura collected a small fortune (for a kid) from the betting pool on which girl would get into Sasuke's team. The fact she was with her crush just sweetened the deal.

Iruka just gave an exasperated before continuing. "Team eight will consist of Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hyuuga Hinata under Yuhi Kurenai. And Finally team ten is . . . yes Sakura?"

Sakura put her hand down before addesing her teacher, "Don't you mean team nine, Sensei?"

"No, team nine is still in circulation from last year as they have yet to addvance into chunin."

"So they were the worst team from last year, hu?" Sasuke asked..

"No, no, no, nothing like that. Infact they are the best team from last year. It's just that every other team was either disbanded or droped from the program or other such things." Left unsaid was that most of the teams either failed their senseis exam or died. No need to worry the rookies.

"Anyway, now that thats cleared up, team ten will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji led by Sarutobi Asuma." The two boys of the team exchanged a quick high five while Ino groaned, knowing she would have to deal with the two for a long time yet. "I would just like to say how proud of you all I am. Your new senseis will be here shortly, good luck to you all." Iruka finished with a smile. He had been with this class for seven years now, and it saddened him to see them go, but he was also happy, for he could see the future of Konoha in them. And he knew, in his heart, that every last rookie here would do their best for their home.


End file.
